Chip Hanlon

Red County is Dead

Chip Hanlon, Dave Gilliard, Matt Cunningham, Meg Whitman, Red County Blog System Comments Off

Aug 052012

It’s amazing, really. Sometimes good things happen to good people.

Many of you that regularly read this blog remember when I was thrown off of Red County for being paid by Steve Poizner. Many of you read when months later, I found out that Meg Whitman had bought the Red County Blog 4 days before I was tossed.

People that were recruited by Team LaMalfa (Karen England et. al.) used the fact that I got tossed from Red County repeatedly to get mainly Tea Partiers that had never met me to believe I was some sort of scumbag. Welcome to Politics.

Recently – the FPPC was considering regulating paid blogging. Similar to the Dave Gilliard led media drills against the Central Committee – some of Meg Whitman’s former team ran one against me. They attempted to re-write history claiming that I never had a job offer from Whitman… in a similar manner that the Red County founders were never honest about my disclosing to them my arrangement with Poizner.

The media drill ended with my quote, “… government telling anybody to do anything, but if these idiots would start being ethical about what they’re doing there would be no reason for government to be stepping in with more regulations.”

Idiots.

The Orange Juice Blog broke the story about the demise of Red County. (that I called Meg County to highlight its’ purchase)

I left the following comment:

I don’t believe in Karma.

I wrote previously that I had forgiven Chip Hanlon and Matthew Cunningham years ago for being double-dealing political whores. I continue to stay involved in politics because I meet people like Allen Bartlett and others along the way that remind me there are true people out there for the cause.

Hanlon reaped a whirlwind. I sincerely hope that Mr. Hanlon finds God, or at the very least his integrity as a result of his world collapsing. Everyone is redeemable – but I have a really hard time thinking that either Hanlon or Cunningham are.

I learned a lesson – Matthew Cunningham is a step worse than Hanlon. Cunningham has deluded himself in to believing that his political prostitution is the right thing to do and that every position he takes is the right one.

In retrospect, when Hanlon got bought off by Whitman and threw me out of the blog – it was because his house of cards was collapsing and he needed some cash desperately.

Cunningham has no such defense for his behavior at all.

In the end, Matthew Cunningham got off way easier than Chip Hanlon. Hanlon will likely end up in Prison or so financially devastated that he will be on welfare.

Meanwhile, Matthew Cunningham continues to leech $200 an hour off of the first five bull—- that he opposed when it was on the ballot, and the list goes on and on and on.

I learned another lesson – simply telling a couple people when I have a conflict of interest is not enough. I told Hanlon and he misused the information – and for 2 1/2 years since, political opponents throw it in my face, occasionally, I get calls from the media about related issues.

I learned to jealously guard my integrity, because at the end of the day no one can take that away from me unless I let them…

… and this is where Karma comes in. Matthew Cunningham and Chip Hanlon attempted to destroy me and now look where they are. Both exposed, Hanlon destroyed.

… that’s sad

Will team LaMalfa / Gilliard ever set the record straight over the smears? Of course not.

FPPC to Take on Paid Blogging?

Chip Hanlon, Jon Fleischman, Meg Whitman, Paid Blogging, Steve Poizner 2 Responses »

Apr 192012

In politics, self-righteous pompous arrogance has consequences – as does hypocrisy.

There is a story that involves me that pops up occasionally about when I was thrown off of the Red County Blog for being paid to blog for Steve Poizner. The part that is seldom-told is that Red County was told by me about my relationship with Poizner’s campaign and two that 4 days before I was expelled, they had taken the first $20,000 of what ended up being $110,000 from Meg Whitman’s Governor Campaign. (They claim for advertising – I’d love to get 1/10th of that from a campaign – any takers?)

I also remind people that it was Meg Whitman that attempted to hire me – I got the gig with Poizner because I refused to betray him without warning him. He decided to match the offer I had from Whitman – before I was thrown under the bus because of the negative press.

Now the issue is causing the FPPC to attempt to regulate blogging. The obvious issue is that violates the first amendment and the second is that the regulation is unenforceable.

I was called by a Sacramento Bee reporter relating to a newly proposed regulation requiring public disclosure by bloggers if they are being paid by campaigns.

I am Les Baugh’s general consultant – he is not paying me to blog. So, would I have to disclose that?

As an example, what would happen if Steve Frank called me up and asked me to do some more independent contracting on behalf of some of his clients? No campaign is paying me – do I have to disclose? What do I have to disclose?

What if I wrote a blog lighting up a candidate who is a nimrod, then the opponent called me and bought an ad on the blog? What about my ads that I put up that aren’t paid for? What about my right to kick the crap out of candidates I disdain? People could get really really confused and I could be turned in to a criminal by the FPPC for exercising my right to free speech.

The intent of this regulation is bad enough – but this would not be an issue had it not been for Chip Hanlon of Red County and his self-righteous hypocrisy.

Jon Fleischman gets paid by campaigns and he rarely, if ever discloses it. (Sources tell me) He gets paid frequently by Dave Gilliard (or Gilliard’s interests). The irony is that Mr. Gilliard may well have been behind the call from the Bee to my cell phone today as Mr. Gilliard has a proven affinity for floating stories to local media outlets. Gilliard’s nexus would be that several of his clients are frequent victims of this blog.

Almost every “major” blogger I know gets paid one way or another. Here is a story that the Bee reporter I spoke with wrote. (A portion of this came in to people’s email boxes as a Capitol Alert this evening)

I love the quotes that the reporter gave me in the story:

“A lot of people out there that pilloried me and talked about what I dirtbag I was, they’ve all been on the take for years,” Park said.

Park said he opposes “government telling anybody to do anything, but if these idiots would start being ethical about what they’re doing there would be no reason for government to be stepping in with more regulations.”

So, there you have it folks. The hypocritical ranting of a man (Chip Hanlon) who is now in serious legal trouble with the SEC for fraud and selling securities with an expired license has caused the FPPC to attempt to extend the heavy had of government in to blogging.

Sometimes a failure to have personal ethics does indeed hurt others – in ways you never intended when you think you are serving yourself.

Why Is Matt Cunningham’s Double-Dealing an Important Lesson?

Chip Hanlon, Matt Cunningham Comments Off

May 222011

Many of you regular readers of this blog have read me write more than a few times about my expulsion from Red County. I got expelled because I was honest about working for Steve Poizner.

Matt Cunningham is one of the partners in Red County – he is a well-connected member of the “Orange County Mafia”. The OC Mafia basically control the California GOP.

Cunningham is a reputed “conservative” activist. He was in Jon Fleischman’s wedding for example, and he has known several OC legislators since they were in College.

Somewhere, the quest for a paycheck trumped his Conservative Activist background.

The Friends for Fullerton’s Future Blog just opened up Cunningham again – finding a $30,000 contract for more Government Work. Here’s the deal – it is not wrong, just hypocritical for Cunningham to be doing this – and when you read the blog and the contract itself – you’ll see that Cunningham is sucking at the government teet for doing little or nothing.

Cunningham’s Partner – Chip Hanlon is getting sued by the FINRA and the SEC for fraud. Hanlon had also had his license to practice financial planning revoked in 2009 and a Bankruptcy around that time as well – explaining why the Red County Blog was sold to Meg Whitman.

Add to this, the previous revelations that Cunningham raked in over $200,000 from the first five commission – the Rob Reiner thing known as prop 10 – and you have a pattern of hypocricy.

You can see multiple posts about the First Five Commission all over the FFFF blog. Try Here, And Here, Again Here and some more Here.

The point? Matt Cunningham railed against Prop 10 for a long time before it passed. Chip Hanlon self-righteously bloveated against paid blogging.

Still others here locally seized on the self-righteous cannon and libel of the above two to use in their “case” against some of us locally.

So – some tried to use Fraud at the CRA convention and also used the rantings of two fruadsters from the OC to “reform” things? Epic Fail.

Reposted Here: Allow your good Sgt. to Roast some GOP Weenies

California Governor's Race, Chip Hanlon, Matt Cunningham, Meg Whitman Comments Off

Nov 072010

I gotta rub it in the face of Red County – aka. Meg County Blog, they look like a bunch of Idiots as opposed to just being simple Charlatans right now.

They sell out for cash then stab Meg in the back by supporting Nutbag for Lt. Governor over Abel Maldonado – Meg’s choice. But, at least Matt Cunningham and Chip Hanlon were compensated well for their political prostitution.

Mr. Jerbal and his friends from Orange County can post all their blogs and take all the shots at us (at the OJ) that they want, but the exposure will never end. They are frauds. Allan Bartlett found it out, just like I did – if you tell them the truth, they mess you over.

Does the above sound harsh? Meg Whitman is a Democrat – her positions on issues were quite similar to those of Jerry Brown so people voted for the real thing. Do not call yourself a Conservative leader while you hitch your wagon to that, end of story… otherwise, you’re a sellout.

Once the Primary was over – I gave tepid support to Whitman as the nominee of the GOP, but that was it. I jumped in and supported Abel Maldonado – because he won the primary fair and square only to have someone use him for a cheap fundraising stunt.

There have been a ton of recriminations over the elections results. I can tell you in the state party the immediate cosequences will be that the old leadership will be targeted at the next convention.

Guy Houston – Meg’s hand-picked puppet for Chairman is a goner… I wonder if he even answers the bell?

Jeff Flint – best known as one of the consultants that got Prop 8 passed despite the Obamunism tsunami – lit Arnold, Meg and the whole lot of them up in a post on the FlashReport. I am leaving an excerpt here:

Republicans! The Party of Lower Taxes! Not under Arnold Schwarzenegger, who raised taxes and fees by billions and sought to undermine the two-thirds vote for tax increases.

Republicans! The Party that will End Deficit Spending! Not under Arnold Schwarzenegger, who repeatedly has papered over deficit spending in a manner that made Gray Davis’ budget shenanigans look amateur in comparison.

Republicans! The Party of Economic Growth, Jobs, and Fewer Regulations! Not under Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose AB 32 monstrosity will confine California to lower growth and under-performing job creation for decades to come.

Am I putting too much of the blame for California’s failure to follow the rest of the nation in moving decisively to the right on Schwarzenegger? I don’t think so. Because there is clear evidence that it is the California Republican brand, as defined by Schwarzenegger, that suffered this past Tuesday, not conservatism.

A new website has popped up – it is called the worst campaign in history and it rips the lack of principle and the incompetence of the $170 million debacule.

The GOP got it’s ass kicked in California because of Arnold and Arnold in a skirt – Arnold was rejected, not Republicans

The Conclusion of the Red County Saga 6 Week Delay + Team Whitman’s Job Offer

Chip Hanlon, Matt Cunningham, Meg Whitman, Red County Blog System Comments Off

Feb 192010

Prologue:

Chip Hanlon could have simply ejected me from the Red County blog with no fanfare -i.e. “hey Aaron, your arrangement isn’t going to work for us”… rather, they saw an opportunity to drive traffic and profit -so they took it. That’s the real issue – then they grandstanded about ethics.

Haven’t Republican leaders learned enough about leveling the ethics finger? Just do your business and be done with it, but apparently, that would have inhibited some perceived gain those at Red County saw as a possibility.

As I blogged previously, posts were deleted, comments were deleted, lawsuits were threatened in addition to constant complaints about money.

Whitman’s Job Offer

As I had told a few people, back on December 24th, 2008 – the third of three meetings between Mitch Zak and I had occurred. The third meeting was the decision point, we had negotiated terms and I was to get back to Mitch about what I’d be doing for my compensation (the one-pager referenced below).

The entire email thread is available – but in an email dated 12/24/2008 at 8:50AM, Zak wrote:

Good morning Aaron,

Great seeing you this morning. I enjoyed breakfast and good conversation. As promised, I’ve attached Meg’s commonwealth club speech as well as an op-ed she penned on Prop 5. Please send me the one-pager asap and I’ll begin working on it. I look forward to reading the next installment from Captain Kool-Aid.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

mz

I consider Mitch Zak to be a friend – he did nothing wrong in trying to hire me on to the Whitman Campaign. Mitch replied on 12/26 after I had let him know I was not going to rescind my endorsement of Steve Poizner:

Thanks for the follow-up Aaron,

While I’m disappointed that we won’t be able to work together, I certainly understand. We can revisit our conversation when the general election comes around.

In the meantime, lets stay in touch.

Best,
mz

I have been forced to set Zak on fire because of the actions of Chip Hanlon and Matt Cunningham. This is one of the despicable things in politics… but in the case of Meg County vs. the Whitman Campaign, there is no honor amongst thieves.

Now – when I went to Steve Frank about what transpired in the conversation on 12/24/2008 to let him know that there was an offer on the table… that is what ultimately led to my arrangement with Steve Frank. Note that I worked for Steve Frank, not Steve Poizner.

Obviously, Steve Frank thought I had a job offer from Whitman.

Lies of Omission by Red County

Chip Hanlon was told both facts on 10/29/2009. Many who follow the Meg County blog have seen parts of the emails. Hanlon found out about my arrangement, because I told him – on 10/29/2009. However, I was not ejected from Red County until 12/09/2009 – why?

It is not as simple as Red County adhering to an ethical code – they took money from Whitman and said nothing about it. Hanlon wrote the following to me on 10/30/2009:

Understood. Clarifying from yesterday’s call: if you had to disclose the payments from Steve Frank– or whatever the related entity is– so it’s clear you have a Poizner interest, how big a problem would that be for you? I mean, would you reeeaaaalllyy prefer not to, is it no big deal, or somewhere in between? Again, I just have to think through what RC can live with, and I can’t ask Matt for guidance on this specifically. Thanks.

It is absolutely 100% true that I answered with the following: “The problem is that I would lose the deal and would be devastated financially. I told you about it so you’d understand the backside pressure I have. ” – I had just closed escrow on a new house. Today is a different story.

Mind you, there was no further communication until 12/09/2009 when Chip called me telling me it was over. There were no intermediate options given – such as, “look dude, you’re going to have to go public”. Chip characterized my follow-up questions as begging in the post he had already written before we hung up the phone – as it was up before I got in to my office.

CONCLUSION

Chip Hanlon chose to do it is public and messy as he could – picking and choosing facts as it suited him in order to get even with Steve Poizner for not buying advertising on the Red County Blog.

They then went out and said I failed to disclose and that was the reason why they did what they did. I did disclose – some six weeks prior and asked if I could keep the disclosure out of the public. I got my answer.

Hanlon’s company – greenfaucet got $20K from Whitman 12/03 – I was axed 12/09. When coupled with the direct and extremely personal nature of Hanlon’s angry string of blog posts that followed – draw your own conclusions as to what happened.

There it is – that simple. A blog with an extreme financial interest in the Whitman Campaign attempted to publicly destroy a blogger working as a consultant for a consultant with an interest in the Poizner camp.

Campaign combat 101.

P.S. as of 2/18/2010 – Three months after my ouster – the Red County System has finally removed all of my posts.

P.P.S. Lest anyone forget about who we are dealing with in Meg Whitman, watch the embedded video.

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